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Today we are very excited to announce the winner of the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award! The D Franklin Defying Doomsday award was judged by Twelfth Planet Press publisher, Alisa Krasnostein, and Defying Doomsday editors, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and was made possible by our wonderful Pozible Patron of Diversity, D Franklin. The award grants one winner per year a cash prize of $200 in recognition of their work in disability advocacy in SFF literature. Eligible works included non-fiction or related media exploring the subject of disability in SFF literature, published in 2016. The 2016 winner is Disability in Kidlit! We are so excited to be able to recognise the wonderful work done at Disability in Kidlit with the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award. Disability in Kidlit is an excellent website and resource for discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. From the Disability in Kidlit website: Disability in Kidlit is dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. We publish articles, reviews, interviews, and discussions examining this topic from various angles—and always from the disabled perspective. We believe that a thoughtful portrayal of disability requires more than memorizing a list of symptoms; we hope that sharing disabled people’s thoughts on stereotypes, pet peeves, particular portrayals, and their own day-to-day experiences will help our readers learn about the realities of disability, which are often different from what we see in popular media. We believe the team at Disability in Kidlit has provided (and continues to provide) an exceptional platform of own voices promoting, critiquing and discussing the presentation of disability in middle grade and young adult fiction, including science fiction and fantasy. For that reason, we are very pleased to name them as the winners of the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award for 2016. You can find out more about Disability in Kidlit at their website: http://disabilityinkidlit.com/ We also want to take this opportunity to give an honourable mention to Ada Hoffman for her “Autistic Book Party” review series. The Autistic Book Party reviews consider books from autistic perspectives (either about autistic characters or by autistic authors), including science fiction and fantasy books. In her Autistic Book Party series, Ada Hoffman discusses a range of books and reviews them with particular consideration of their portrayal of autism, from an own voice perspective. We are very pleased to be able to recognise Ada Hoffman’s work with an honourable mention to the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award for 2016. You can find out more about the Autistic Book Party series at Ada Hoffman’s website: http://www.ada-hoffmann.com/autistic-book-party/ Thank you so much to everyone who entered nominations for the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award and congratulations to Disability in Kidlit and Ada...

An exciting little news update! Recently, at the Continuum Convention in Melbourne, the Ditmar Awards were announced. The Ditmar Awards are awarded to Australian creators based on popular vote by the members of each year’s Australian National Convention (or NatCon). This year, Defying Doomsday won the Best Collected Work category (tying with Dreaming the Dark edited by Jack Dann). Whoo! We are very excited about this and we would like to thank all of our wonderful authors, for writing such great stories. Congratulations! We also want to thank our amazing backers for making Defying Doomsday possible! Furthermore, one of our stories “Did We Break the End of the World?” by Tansy Rayner Roberts won in the Best Novelette or Novella category. Congratulations, Tansy! While we’re at it, we also want to put the word out that nominations are still open for the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award and we’d love to get more! You can find out more about the award and nominate eligible works via the form at: http://defyingdoomsday.twelfthplanetpress.com/announcing-the-d-franklin-defying-doomsday-award/ Aaaaand! We’re not quite done yet. We want to give a shout out to Mother of Invention, the latest crowdfunded anthology coming out from Twelfth Planet Press. Mother of Invention will be edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Rivqa Rafael is in its last final moments of crowdfunding frenzy! This anthology will feature diverse, challenging stories about gender as it relates to the creation of artificial intelligence and robotics. You can back Mother of Invention on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twelfthplanetpress/mother-of-invention I think that’s everything! Congratulations to everyone who helped make Defying Doomsday possible; thank you to D Franklin and everyone nominating for the D Franklin Defying Doomsday Award; AND good luck to Tansy and Rivqa! 🙂 – Holly and Tsana...

We are very excited to announce the opening of nominations for The Defying Doomsday Award recognising work in disability advocacy in SFF literature. As well as publishing SFF fiction that supports positive storytelling for disabled characters, we want to encourage and support advocacy for greater diversity in SFF fiction. As such, the Defying Doomsday Award is a special award for disability advocacy in SFF literature. This award is possible thanks to D Franklin, our wonderful Patron of Diversity who pledged the top pledge in our Pozible campaign! The Defying Doomsday Award is an annual shortlist and prize. The award jury comprises Twelfth Planet Press publisher, Alisa Krasnostein, and Defying Doomsday editors, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench. The award will grant one winner per year a cash prize of $200 in recognition of their work in disability advocacy in SFF literature. Eligible works include non-fiction or related media exploring the subject of disability in SFF literature. Works must have been published in 2016. We are now seeking nominations for the 2016 Defying Doomsday Award. Please submit your nominations to Tsana and Holly by filling in this form. Submissions will be open until 31st July 2017, and the winner/s will be announced in September 2017. Thank you all for your nominations, and a big thanks to D Franklin for making this award...

Exciting news! Defying Doomsday has been shortlisted for multiple Aurealis, Tin Duck and Ditmar awards! Aurealis Awards: We are excited to have shortlistings for: BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY – “Did We Break the End of the World?” by Tansy Rayner Roberts BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA – “Did We Break the End of the World?” by Tansy Rayner Roberts BEST ANTHOLOGY – Defying Doomsday edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench Find more of the amazing works shortlisted for Aurealis Awards here. Tin Duck Awards: We are excited to have been nominated for: BEST WA SHORT WRITTEN WORK – “To Take into the Air my Quiet Breath” by Stephanie Gunn BEST WA PRODUCTION – Defying Doomsday edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench You can find out more about the Tin Duck Awards here. Ditmar Awards: We are excited to have shortlistings for: BEST NOVELLA OR NOVELETTE – “Did We Break the End of the World?” by Tansy Rayner Roberts BEST COLLECTED WORK – Defying Doomsday edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench Find more of the amazing works shortlisted for the Ditmar Awards...

It’s release day! Hurray! Defying Doomsday is now available for purchase in ebook and paperback formats from various online stockists including the publisher at Twelfth Planet Press, as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Rewards have already started going out to our incredible Pozible backers, from knitted rewards and pendants, to paperbacks and exclusive backer hardcovers. We love seeing photos on Facebook and Twitter tagged by backers as they arrive! We will be holding a launch at Continuum Con in Melbourne in June. In the meantime, there’s been a wonderful write up for Defying Doomsday in The West Australian, and some lovely reviews at Ventureadlaxre and Random Alex, as well as community reviews on Goodreads. Get your copy at: Twelfth Planet Press Amazon Amazon AUS Barnes & Noble Fishpond Book Depository Booktopia...

We are very excited to share our cover, designed and illustrated by Tania Walker! Defying Doomsday will be released on 30 May 2016. You can now pre-order a copy from the Twelfth Planet Press website and add it to Goodreads! Blurb: Teens form an all-girl band in the face of an impending comet. A woman faces giant spiders to collect silk and protect her family. New friends take their radio show on the road in search of plague survivors. A man seeks love in a fading world. How would you survive the apocalypse? Defying Doomsday is an anthology of apocalypse fiction featuring disabled and chronically ill protagonists, proving it’s not always the “fittest” who survive – it’s the most tenacious, stubborn, enduring and innovative characters who have the best chance of adapting when everything is lost. In stories of fear, hope and survival, this anthology gives new perspectives on the end of the world, from authors Corinne Duyvis, Janet Edwards, Seanan McGuire, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Stephanie Gunn, Elinor Caiman Sands, Rivqa Rafael, Bogi Takács, John Chu, Maree Kimberley, Octavia Cade, Lauren E Mitchell, Thoraiya Dyer, Samantha Rich, and K. L....

Teens form an all-girl band in the face of an impending comet. A woman faces giant spiders to collect silk and protect her family. New friends take their radio show on the road in search of plague survivors. A man seeks love in a fading world. How would you survive the apocalypse? Defying Doomsday is an anthology of apocalypse fiction featuring disabled and chronically ill protagonists, proving it’s not always the “fittest” who survive – it’s the most tenacious, stubborn, enduring and innovative characters who have the best chance of adapting when everything is lost. In stories of fear, hope and survival, this anthology gives new perspectives on the end of the world, from authors Corinne Duyvis, Janet Edwards, Seanan McGuire, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Stephanie Gunn, Elinor Caiman Sands, Rivqa Rafael, Bogi Takács, John Chu, Maree Kimberley, Octavia Cade, Lauren E Mitchell, Thoraiya Dyer, Samantha Rich, and K...

After much submission wrangling and shuffling, we are finally ready to announce the table of contents for Defying Doomsday! (One quick disclaimer: it’s possible that the exact order of stories might change a little bit between now and publication time, but we’re pretty sure it will look something like this.) So without further ado, the table of contents for Defying Doomsday! Table of Contents And the Rest of Us Wait by Corinne Duyvis To Take Into the Air My Quiet Breath by Stephanie Gunn Something in the Rain by Seanan McGuire Did We Break the End of the World? by Tansy Rayner Roberts In the Sky with Diamonds by Elinor Caiman Sands Two Somebodies Go Hunting by Rivqa Rafael Given Sufficient Desperation by Bogi Takács Selected Afterimages of the Fading by John Chu Five Thousand Squares by Maree Kimberley Portobello Blind by Octavia Cade Tea Party by Lauren E Mitchell Giant by Thoraiya Dyer Spider-Silk, Strong as Steel by Samantha Rich No Shit by K Evangelista I Will Remember You by Janet...

We have now read and responded to all Defying Doomsday submissions! As soon as we make a few final touches, we’ll be ready to announce our table of contents. Overall, we received 177 stories for our theme: Apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled and chronically-ill characters. Of those stories, the vast majority were by US authors (just over 50%), with Australian authors coming in second at 21%. The gender distribution of submissions was 51.4% men, 46.3% women and 2.3% both/other/not-binary/unknown. Finally, our stats for those authors who followed the guidelines… 67.2% of the authors who submitted to Defying Doomsday followed the stated guidelines, 32.8% did not! So there are some pie charts for your delectation. If you submitted to Defying Doomsday and have yet to hear anything back about your story, please query by sending us an email at defyingdoomsday@twelfthplanetpress.com We’ll be announcing the table of contents soon!...

We are very excited to announce that the Defying Doomsday campaign has successfully finished. 271 amazing supporters raised $13,760 to make an anthology of apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled and chronically-ill characters. The anthology will be released in mid 2016 by Twelfth Planet Press. We already have some authors lined up, including John Chu, Corinne Duyvis, Janet Edwards, and Seanan McGuire. But, thanks to our wonderful supporters, we now have the funds for more stories to complete the anthology. Hurray! That means we are now open to submissions. We’re looking for apocalypse stories with protagonists with disability and chronic illness (etc). Stories must be between 3000 and 7000 words and emailed to us at defyingdoomsday@twelfthplanetpress.com by July 1 2015. You can find our full submission guidelines here: http://defyingdoomsday.twelfthplanetpress.com/submissions/ We will continue to share updates as the project progresses. We can’t wait to read everyone’s stories and to share the final anthology with you all! Thank you again to our supporters! We couldn’t do this without...